FEAR NOT. FIX YOUR THOUGHTS ON JESUS

We are to listen carefully to the warnings of the watchmen but are not to become obsessed with their warnings.

We are to be alerted and warned by prophetic messages, and we're to heed every one that's revealed and confirmed in Scripture. We're to gather all the knowledge we can about the coming storm, so we can prepare our hearts for whatever destruction it brings. But we are not to let fear or anxiety consume our thinking, dominate our minds, take hold of our hearts!

Darkness is certainly coming, and judgment is at our very door. But as God's people, we cannot allow any cloud of darkness to hide the light of his great promises of love and mercy toward his people. We are to be well informed by the Lord's words and prophets, but we are not to dwell on prophetic knowledge so much that it takes over our lives.

The devil would love for that to happen. He knows if he can't get you to doubt God's Word concerning his judgment, he'll take you to another extreme by driving you to a fearful obsession with perilous times. He'll try to rob you of all hope by consuming you with thoughts of foreboding.

The apostle Paul reassures us about such things with this instruction: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Philippians 4:8). Paul is telling us, "You've heard all the warnings. Now, simply take heed to what God's Word reveals and to what his watchmen are saying. Then, finally, fix all your thoughts on Jesus and his goodness."

I have faithfully warned of a soon-to-come worldwide economic holocaust, and we already see this happening around the world. I have warned that Christians are going to suffer - that here will be great loss and hardship - and right now multitudes of precious saints all over the world are enduring unbelievable tribulation. But none of these things is the focus of all my energies and ministry. No, the deepest expression of my soul is to proclaim the love of God the father and the tender mercy of our savior Jesus.

So when I go to bed at night, I know that he alone is in control of all these things. I simply do what the prophet Isaiah did: he put his mind to rest by fully trusting in his Lord. He said, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee"(Isaiah 26:3).